Christopher Howse writes leaders and features and reviews for The Daily Telegraph, which he joined in 1996 as obituaries editor. His Saturday column, Sacred Mysteries, is on religion. He lives in Westminster.

David Beckham's tattoo of Jesus is just right – bad art and bad taste

David Beckham's new tattoo is just right. It is bad art and bad taste. That is how such tattoos should be.

Why does Beckham have 'The Man of Sorrows' on his side? (Photo: Reuters)

The image of a bloodied Christ about to be crucified is taken from a picture by Matthew R Brooks, a Catholic artist who wishes to use art as a means of communicating faith. I take it that that is not Mr Beckham's explicit aim.

In saying that Mr Beckham's tattoo is bad art, I do not mean that Mr Brooks's pictures are bad art, even if they are not El Greco. But by the time they have been simplified by the tattooist's needle, such pictures approximate to popular religious imagery – which in the eyes of the art establishment is poor stuff. It is as one with plaster statues of the Sacred Heart or Our Lady of Lourdes.

It is precisely such vulgar art that sailors and footballers ought to have incised on their bodies. It is far worse to have a tattoo version of a well-known picture by Rembrandt.

As for the subject matter, I am at a loss to know what Mr Beckham means by having an image called "The Man of Sorrows" tattooed on his side. The title comes from the prophecy of Isaiah (53:3): " He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

The word are familiar from Handel's Messiah. The idea is that Jesus was the suffering servant foretold by Isaiah, who would reconcile mankind with God. "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."

The thinking is the same as that behind art at a much more elevated level, as in the current Sacred Made Real exhibition at the National Gallery. God forbid that David Beckham should identify himself as the suffering servant. That is more in line with Tony Blair's talk of wounds on his back.

Since Mr Beckham has had mottoes tattooed on him in Latin and Sanskrit, there is no telling quite what he means by becoming a canvas for Christian iconography. Sailors, it is said, would have crucifixes tattooed on their backs to deter those with the duty of giving them lashes. I doubt if the new tattoo will stop anyone booting Mr Beckham in the side.